Lyrics are what I tend to tear hair out over and they're where I tend to feel weak musically, if I'm being very honest. It is not something I feel like I know anything about; I would not consider myself a writer. I just want to sing, I just want to sing a melody, I just want to feel a melody, and be part of the song, and everything else is not so important.

I'm swept along by larger forces out of my control.

I could probably spend the next five years reworking an album from ten years ago, if given the chance, to make it better - make it best, so to speak.

I was a very good student until about sophomore year, and that's when I just became so disillusioned with the whole thing that I just became an awful student. I was still making good grades. But I was cutting class three days a week and faking papers that I got off the internet.

When I came back to America, I realized that world music is no joke, it really has a lot to it.

I tend to hear rhythm and melody, chord-progressions, long before I hear words.

In the age of the mp3, you gotta make the package special, something that's worth owning.